Wells Fargo cutting nearly 300 jobs in Tempe, thousands nationwide

Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) is laying off 291 employees in Tempe and one in Phoenix as part of a nationwide purge of roughly 3,000 mortgage-related jobs.

Danny Ischy, a local Wells Fargo spokesman, confirmed in a statement that the bank notified about 2,300 employees of the layoffs today, citing rising interest rates and notable declines in mortgage refinancing.

That’s on top of the 763 laid-off workers the San Francisco-based bank announced earlier this month. That first round of layoffs also impacted 39 workers in Tempe, Ischy told me, bringing the Valleywide total to 331.

Wells Fargo is the No. 1 bank in Arizona in terms of market share, and employs roughly 12,000 people across the Phoenix area. The layoffs account for roughly 3 percent of the bank's local workforce.

“While interest rates remain very favorable by historical standards for home buyers, a recent rise in rates has affected consumer demand for mortgage refinancing, causing volumes to fall below what we experienced throughout 2012 and early 2013,” Ischy said in the statement. “We are reducing staff in Tempe and Phoenix to respond to this shift in demand and to better align and increase the efficiency of our organization.”

The Phoenix Business Journal's sister publications around the country are reporting that today’s layoffs impacted 284 workers in Charlotte, 365 in Birmingham, Ala. and 95 in Jacksonville, Fla.

The affected employees — all of which work in consumer mortgage processing — were given a 60-day notice today.

Alfredo Padilla, Well Fargo’s mortgage communications spokesman, said workers will have opportunities to secure other positions within the company, but if not, they’ll be given severance packages based on years of employment after the 60-day period.

Padilla declined to say exactly where in Tempe and Phoenix these impacted workers are employed.

“The decision to reduce our workforce is made with great concern for the team members who are affected,” Ischy said. “We are committed to retaining valued team members and, where possible, we will work to identify other opportunities within Wells Fargo.”